Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

So does anyone filter the crap out of their water before using it in a ferment? I realize a lot of you have water tanks, but for some (including me) that luxury is beyond us due to renting. Is it worthwhile to filter tap water to improve the final product? Thinking of building a filter unit or modding an underbench one to filter my water but would like opinions and possibly pics of what you have. Whether it be an old sock full of last nights bonfire through to Plc controlled reverse osmosis, do you need it, what do you have and show us a pic.

Cheers

When I started doing this I just used normal tap water.
Then the Mrs had one of those under bench carbon jobs hooked up and Ive been using that since.
Honestly, I havent noticed any change in final product.

Ask your water supplyer what the content of clorine is in your supplied water.

I think they should have this data... and you do pay alot for water now.. make them work for it

Holy crap! No one will believe it! Did a phone survey bout 1 to 2 months ago about water quality in the pilbara and said there was a prize for a $400 water filter. They just rang then and said I won it!?!?!?! WTF? What is the chance of that? Fuck me.

Carma wants you to make booze!

Can't argue with that.

Melbourne water .....

http://www.melbournewater.com.au/content/library/water_storages/water_quality/Typical_analysis_of_Melbournes_water.pdf

Theirs a lot more in water than just water eh. If anything just judging by that Melbourne water data it a filter should give a more consistent final product. Seems to be a bit of variance between areas there. My theory being more of the product and process that can be controlled should give less nasty taste surprises that leave the head scratching with wondering where it came from.

I had this idea about filtering the water u use for cooling through an inline fridge filter I think u can pick up a pack of 10 for about $250.00 and then storing that water for your next wash be good to know if someone has done something similar.

Living in Northwest WA our water is crap. Its pumped from a bore field into huge storage tanks, then supplied to the town after its had shit added to it. Making a coffee from the tap water, you can see a slight "oily" type of film on the surface, and many people in town complain it tastes like crap, so most people buy their water from the supermarket.

Since I got in trouble :oops: earlier this year from some of the members on here for asking about carbon filtering their final product, I decided to use my Still Spirits EZ Carbon Filter System to filter my tap water. The manufacturer states each carbon filter is good for filtering 300 litres of water, which is a lot more than they filter spirits.

Mine cost me $119.00, so its not bad considering the costs of most water filters, and the replacement carbon cartridges are around $9.00 each.

I dont worry about filtering water for making up washes, Just use straight from the mainswater chlorine fluoride and all.
I figure 2 distillations gets rid of all that
but for cutting to cask or bottle ABVs i either use water from my under bench filter or I go buy a big bottle of spring water and use that.
I have read ( it may be BS ) that you dont want high iron content in your water for bourbon washes.

kiwikeg wrote:or I go buy a big bottle of spring water and use that.

When you work out that 15 litres of spring water is around $10, it doesn't take long before your over the $100 mark anyway. If my calculations are correct, the EZ Carbon Filter, and a carbon cartridge is $128, which filters 300 litres of water, and works out to be 42 cents per litre including the cost of the unit and one cartridge.

I have recently been looking at the undersink water filter systems, there are a decent range to choose from.
http://www.psifilters.com.au/

I agree filtering your own water is much cheaper and probily more enviromentally friendly but I do reuse the bottles. plus I like the wank factor of using Natural Spring water.
What I really want is to get a property with its own water spring.....

I would think the water quality in NZ would be much better than in Australia, then again they possibly put the same crap in your water as they do here. I suppose it also comes down to where the water is sourced from to start with.

I have read that some of these undersink filtration systems have replacement canisters that also put certain elements (nutrients) back into the water.

If rainwater is too tainted for you and you want pure water for diluting maybe see if ya can find someone with a still they work pretty well I'm told :roll: :laughing-rolling:

croweater wrote:If rainwater is too tainted for you and you want pure water for diluting maybe see if ya can find someone with a still they work pretty well I'm told :roll: :laughing-rolling:

:roll:

Stephen wrote:So does anyone filter the crap out of their water before using it in a ferment?

The short answer is no.
I use rainwater from my tanks, If you look in my gutters you will find an assortment of things, mostly decomposing leaves and a bit of bird shit.
Over the years Ive found dead frogs, birds, and other critters in the tanks as well as tennis balls and other kids toys just to name a few.
City and town dwellers who visit often comment on how good my water tastes straight from the tap.
Ive been drinking it for 50+ years and it hasn't killed me or anyone else yet and my washes work fine.
As far as I see it the only thing that should be in your town water would be a bit of chlorine and some fluoride.

Threads a bit old now but to add to the statistics ,yes I have three filters on our rain water tank.A sediment filter post pump and two filters under the sink.

We got it because our son kept getting repetitive Gardia (think how its spelt) in his stomach. The filters stopped this . :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I also love that I have bacteria free water to make my brews and dilute my hootch . :D

ya likka will dispatch any little critters previously residing in ya water ;-) ya can be assured of that

Sorry for dredging up an old post but seams an appropriate place without straying a new thread. I’m in Albany WA and a mate has just had his water tested for a aquaculture venture he’s starting. I’ve got the results but he was told buy his experts that some of the fish he is going to raise are going to struggle or die, so he has to source the water from somewhere else but definitely not the tap. This has got me thinking. I’ve made plenty of beer with our tap water and I haven’t died yet and it tastes pretty reasonable for cheats home brew. Now going into spirits, I’m hoping there’s nothing in our water that may harm my washed once I start.

Test results:

0 cfu/100ml - Ecoli
0 - Thermophilic Naegleria
0.76mg/L - Fluoride
0.2mg/L - Nitrate
0.118mg/L - Trihalomethanes
238mg/L - Alkalinity (as calcium carbonate)
0.013mg/L - Aluminium (acid-soluble)
127mg/L - Chloride
244mg/L - Hardness
0.79mg/L - Iron
<0.002mg/L - Manganese
7.65 - pH
18.1mg/L - Silica
67mg/L - Sodium
578mg/L - Total Dissolved Solids

My next question is water softeners. Does anyone use them? My wife wants one installed to stop the crap building up in the shower. I really don’t want a salt based unit as that just sounds wrong to me.